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Jenny Verner Mitchel (1826-1899)
During her early years Jenny lived with her siblings, two boys and six girls, in the Churchill Mansion on the Verner estate and at a second residence in Eaton Square in London. Jenny was educated at Miss Bryden's School for Young Ladies in Newry. At age sixteen Jenny met John Mitchel, the son of a Unitarian minister and a law student at Trinity College in Dublin. Both family's disapproved of their courtship and forbid them to see each other. Determined to be together they eloped to England. The couple was pursued by her father who brought them back to Dublin. Mitchel was returned in custody of the civil authorities and spent eighteen days in Kilmainham before been released. They eloped again in January of 1837 to Drumcree Parish Church at Portadown, Co. Armagh where they were married. John Martin, a life-long friend and associate of Mitchel, who knew of their courtship is reputed to have arranged secret meeting places for them, and possibly lent them money to elope. For the next number of years they settled down to married life in Newry where John practiced law. The raised five children, three boys and two girls. In 1843 John became a member of O'Connell's Repeal Association and began to contribute to 'The Nation' newspaper. From that time on life for the Mitchel family profoundly changed. Mitchel became disillusioned with O'Connell and the lack of progress in repealing the Act of Union. Together with other younger members of the Repeal Association he parted company with O'Connell and joined the Young Ireland movement believing that force was the only way to achieve a degree of control and freedom for Ireland. This belief was reinforced by the widespread devastation spawned by the the contrived famine of the 1840's. Indifference on the part of the British occupiers was shown by a lack of action and concern for the millions of starving poor. From 1845 through 1848, Mitchel published numerous articles in The Nation and in The United Irishman critical of the British and advocating force to free Ireland from outside control. During this same period Jenny, under the pseudonym Mary, which she shared with other contributors, also published critical and controversial articles in The Nation. In 1848 John Mitchel was arrested and charged with high treason under the Treason Felony Act of 1848. Jenny was at the forefront in organizing her husband’s defense campaign. The outcome of the ensuing trial was a foregone conclusion. He was found guilty and sentenced to fourteen years penal servitude in Van Diemen's Land. Here he was joined by his old friend John Martin who suffered the same fate. In May of 1851, Jenny and their five children joined her husband in exile. For the next two years the family settled down to a normal family life. Their quite family life was upended in 1853 when PJ "Nicuagara" Smyth arrived at Mitchel's door with a plan for his escape to America. Smyth’s plan was successful and Mitchel made good his escape arriving in New York via Australia, the Sandwich Islands, Tahiti and San Francisco. Jenny, with the assistance of their ever faithful friend John Martins, was reunited with John in their new home in New York. Martin received a conditional pardon in 1854 and went to live in Paris. The Mitchel's settled in America where John edited poetry and established the Irish nationalist newspaper The Citizen. Apart from its anti-British tone the paper was controversial for its defense of slavery. The Mitchel's felt that slaves in the south were better cared for than the Irish under British rule. Because of his untenable views on slavery Mitchel terminated his association with newspaper and moved to Tennessee with his family. There he founded a another newspaper, the Southern Citizen and became a spokesman for the Confederacy. Jenny and John paid dearly for their support of the Southern cause. They lost two sons fighting for the Confederacy. Willie Mitchel who was killed while carrying his regiments flag lies in an unmarked grave in Gettysburg scarcely a hundred yards from the high water make of Pickett's Charge. He was a private in the 1st Virginia Infantry founded by Patrick Henry before the Revolution and once commanded by Colonel George Washington. The other son, Major John C. Mitchel, gave his life on the parapets of Fort Sumter during a Union Navy artillery barrage where he was commander of the 1st South Carolina Artillery. His body lies in Charleston's Magnolia Cemetery. Their third son James who also served in the 1st Virginia Infantry survived the war. Jenny suffering did not end with the loss of her two sons. After the war ended John Mitchel spent time in a Union prison for his support of the Confederate cause. He was released within a year or so after the Fenian brotherhood interceded on his behalf. After his release he returned to Ireland, ran for and was elected a Member of Parliament from Tipperary. The British declared his election null and void citing his earlier conviction on treason felony charges. He ran for a second time garnering more votes than he did the first time. Sadly, he died before the British could react to his re-election. Whatever the outcome would have been he had no intention of ever taking a seat in a British parliament based on his conviction that the British occupation of Ireland was illegal and morally corrupt. Mitchel is buried next to his father in the family plot in Newry. Jenny who passed away on December 31, 1899 outlived all of her family except for her son James. Her remains rest in the family plot in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York next to aforementioned son, Captain James Mitchel, CSA. Woodlawn Cemetery is the only resting place containing the remains of two Mitchel's. The remains of one daughter, who had entered a Catholic order of nuns in Paris, is buried there. The remains of her second daughter, who married Charles Sloane of a wealthy Catholic family in New York is buried in the catacombs under St Patrick's Old Cathedral in downtown Manhattan. The Mitchel's -- a family representative of the Irish Diaspora -- parents and children scattered to the four winds. cemetery AND grave location Name: Woodlawn Cemetery PHONE NO. (718) 920-0500 ADDRESS: Webster Avenue & E. 233rd Street • Bronx, NY 10470. GRAVE LOCATION: Hillside Plot, Section 42, Lot North 10297 HEADSTONE INSCRIPTION
(Back to Index Page) 03/08/08
JANE VERNER WIFE OF JOHN MITCHELL OF NEWRY IRELAND DIED ON DEC 3 1899 IN HER EIGHTIETH YEAR
Mitchel
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Jenny
Verner
Mitchel
was
born
into
a
Unionist
family
in
Verner's
Bridge,
Co.
Armagh,
Ireland
circa
1826.
Her
father, Sir
William
Verner,
served
in
the
British
army
